


Reciprocity

by c_canadensis



Category: Bones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-28
Updated: 2012-05-28
Packaged: 2017-11-06 05:12:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/415082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c_canadensis/pseuds/c_canadensis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Comment fic for the "Give a Little Love" LJ meme on bitesize_bones<br/>Prompt from fourth_rose: Booth/Brennan - in many Germanic languages, the word gift means "poison"<br/>Written during the Hannah period</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reciprocity

For so many years, she had avoided Christmas. Not hated it, just didn’t allow it to touch her. She had no part in it: didn’t believe in Christ; didn’t want the obligations, the social contracts involved in giving and receiving gifts. It was that simple.

Then came Booth. Booth, who forced her to acknowledge the holiday and what it was supposed to mean. Booth, who gave her gifts not only at this time of year when there were expectations, but every day of their partnership: understanding, support, toy pigs and Smurfs and faith. Love.

In many Germanic languages, the word “gift” meant poison.

*****

Booth stared at the rotary phone on the table, wondering if that was what had started it all. He loved Hannah. She was beautiful, passionate, independent. She had opened herself up to him without hesitation. As if moving in with him wasn’t a gift in itself, she had given him something on top of it.

The problem was, he knew whose idea it had been. When he looked at that phone, he inevitably thought of another beautiful, independent woman, and thoughts of her kept seeping into everything else until he had realized that however hard he tried, however much he cared, this was not fair to Hannah.

*****

In cultural anthropology, a gift was considered “inalienable” from the giver. It was a loan, forever a part of that person’s identity. The person who received it must reciprocate, and would always be bound to the giver.

Maybe, she thought, the poison only acted if the rule of reciprocity was not followed. Someone who received gifts and still tried to hold herself apart from the man who gave them to her would suffer the consequences, even though she could never quite destroy that bond.

This year, she would try to give, and maybe that would be the cure.


End file.
